travels and interesting people I meet on the way
mixed with some personal thoughts, ideas and poems

Friday, 30 March 2012

a man taken out of the true meaning of happiness

I was walking on the streets of old Delhi a normal afternoon in a crowd of people. A old little man came behind me and said "you are a very tall man, where are you from. In my country we have never seen such a tall people like you" then he asked if he could have a picture of me so he could show his family back in Bhutan how tall people can be in this world.

The man invited me to have a chai with him. I took the invitation.

He explained that his seventy-eight years old and are a retired teacher in Delhi who live in a shared apartment and he haven’t seen his family back in Bhutan for twenty years and every day he’s dreaming of go back but the problem is that he his pension is very small and he don’t have the money to get there.

His face looked very healthy and well-being with some small wrinkles except that he was very skinny and a little bit bold on his head but I could not believe he was that old. He was asking me for help and there was something about this old man that made me believe every single word he said.

I don’t remember exactly what he said about how to get there but it would be by a local bus to the Bhutanese border near Nepal then take a bus from there to his family’s house which are located a six hours drive in the countryside somewhere.

He said that he will start pack his luggage tonight and leave at the end of the week when hes rent expire. He said it will take two days to get to the border by local bus from Delhi.

The money he needed was eighteen hundred rupees and I thought that wasn't too much so I gave him the money the he started smile intensely. A smile I never will forget then he gave me his Bhutanese gold ring that he was wearing on his left finger which was marked with different praying’s on the backside that he explained was made by hand by some Bhutanese monks at the mountain side where he lives. He was also saying that he had been wearing this ring since he was in my age and that the ring will protect me from all the evil things in this world. He looked so happy and start kiss me all over the neck and face then he said that his family will pray for me.

I hope that he made it all the way back to his house and he’s now happy with his family.